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Sprout Mask Replica
 
 
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Sprout Mask Replica (Hardcover)

by Robert Rankin (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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1 new from £119.89 11 used from £2.86 1 collectible from £19.99
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Paperback (New edition) £6.99 £5.49 43 used & new from £0.01

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday (5 Jun 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0385407068
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385407069
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 917,918 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #63 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > R > Rankin, Robert

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Product Description

Product Description
His great-great-grandfather died at the Battle of Little Big Horn after going to complain about the noise; his grandfather spoke only in rhyming couplets; his father practised body modification; and then there was him - he was the weird one. The theme of sprouts pervades this "family memoir".

From the Back Cover
It's all down to the butterfly

His great-grandfather died at the Battle of Little Big Horn. He wasn't with Custer though. He was holding a sprout-bake in the field next door and went over to complain about the noise. His grandfather was a preacherman, who wore weighted shoes in the pulpit to avoid any embarrassing levitations during moments of extreme rapture. His father practised body-modification and once shinned up the inside of a drainpipe to win a bet with his mum. And then there was him. And he was the Chosen One. He had THE GIFT. You've heard of the Butterfly of Chaos Theory? The one that flaps its wings in the Andes and causes a thunderstorm in Penge? Well, he could do that. Shift a biro in his top pocket and cause the Tokyo Stock Exchange to rise twenty two points. Put a paperclip on his ear and make England win the World Cup.

And with a gift like that, imagine what you could do. You could change this world into paradise.

Or you could really screw up.

BIG TIME! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Amusingly Scary, 22 April 2003
By Sheep (Wakefield, England (aged 13)) - See all my reviews
These two words about sum up this great work by one of my personal favourite authors: amusingly scary. Full to the brim with parodies, humour and twisty storylines, Sprout Mask Replica is a brilliant book for Rankin veterans and new-comers alike.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The culmination of a life's work (sort of), 11 Jul 2001
This review is from: Sprout Mask Replica (Paperback)
First up, this isn't the book to start reading Rankin with. It's got so many references to earlier books, that wouldn't be doing it justice. This should have been his final novel; it draws together many of the earlier plotlines, and pretty much all the expected running gags, into a (slightly warped) whole. Yet at the same time, it manages to throw in enough short stories and new ideas to make the book stand on its own as one of his best. Yes, there are poems (unfortunately), but they're much better than in the Garden of Unearthly Delights. There's even a pretty good one about a devil-possessed matchbox. This and the Voodoo Handbag are the capstone of the sprout-powered great pyramid of Brentford. Or the chromium-plated mouthpiece of the megaphone of destiny. Of course.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars His maddest yet, 9 Jan 2005
By dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Sprout Mask Replica (Paperback)
Robert Rankin's 15th novel shares the same stylistic feel as A Dog Called Demolition, with its central plot intersected by a number of (occasionally related) tall tales and bad poetry. If anything though it's even madder than that quite insane book, and is quite possibly the looniest bit of nonsense that Rankin has written thus far.

The story proper is presented as Rankin's fictional autobiography, with the author blessed (or cursed) with the ability to control Chaos Theory, so that by making small actions he can make great changes to the world. Running parallel to this is the even more bonkers story of a sporran infested by a race of sentient sprouts attempting to take over humanity. While this is a stand alone novel its general level of insanity coupled with a number of recurring characters (Pooley and Omally and most of the rest of the 'Brentford' regulars, Barry the Sprout from the Armageddon Trilogy, and Sir John Rimmer, Dr Harney and Danbury Collins the psychic youth from The Garden of Unearthly Delights to name a few) makes this less suitable for the Rankin novice, who may mistake this as a pile of gibberish.

For confirmed addicts though, this is gloriously deranged stuff. Some good concepts and tall stories coupled with some great comedy moments, it's Rankin at his most undisciplined and free flowing, but madness of this level is tantamount to genius.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars We have a phrase for this where I come from
Funny" is hard to do; Woody Allen, PJ O'Rourke, SJ Perelman, Ring Lardner. Not this. This is a shopping list of stylistic and conceptual faults, neatly compiled and duly... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2003 by hackneyslim

1.0 out of 5 stars Rankin Throws Up A Dud
You have to judge any book by any writer against their previous work and, therefore, against what you know they're capable of. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars The most inanely funny book I have ever read.
This is the story of a teenager who finds that he has the power to change the price of beef in New Zealand by rotating his chair, because he is the magical, mythical, metaphorical... Read more
Published on 26 Dec 2000 by blairhart@aol.com

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